Blooms Taxonomy – Page 37 – iLearn Technology

Lucky Star Game Show for SMART boards

October 8, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3262 views

What it is: Cyberchase is an animated math series on PBS Kids. Now, Cyberchase is making math even more fun with an interactive game show called Lucky Star. The game show is a free download for the SMART Notebook software. Lucky Star was designed for kids in 3rd-5th grade. The game show has kids competing for top scores while building important math skills. Lucky Star has 150 questions that focus on problem solving, algebraic thinking, number and operations, geometry, measurement, and more. The game show includes an on-screen think pad (a drop down area where students can work the problems with the pen. The game show also includes some great virtual manipulatives that students can interact with on the interactive whiteboard. Want more? Create your own questions tailored to your curriculum using the Cyberchase characters and props. You can customize the game for your students needs.

How to integrate Lucky Star into your curriculum: Lucky Star is a fun way for your students to practice math. The ability to create your own questions that are tailored to your math curriculum means that this is game can be used all year. The game show makes for a great math warm up to get those brains thinking math. Use Lucky Star as a fun class competition, split your students into teams for a little friendly math competition. Your students will love the game show feel that Lucky Star has. Any time I play games with my whole class, I really play it up. Act the part of Game Show host and get into the game with your students. Hold weekly competitions or semester long competitions to see who can get the top score. Hold a fun math themed party for all of the “contestants” at the end of the competition. When I taught second grade this meant bringing out all of the kids favorite math games and calling them by their class number all day instead of their names. To mix it up, I might call on student number 10 by saying “I need 5+5 to line up third in line”. It was a fun way to have fun with math and celebrate the hard work of all of my students.

Tips: I couldn’t get the Lucky Star Game Show download to open in ActivInspire (for Promethean) even using the Smart Notebook option. I also couldn’t get the download to open in SMART Notebook’s interactive viewer. If anyone has a trick or luck with either of these let me know and I’ll update the post accordingly!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Lucky Star in your classroom!

Pinball: Bounce Ideas Around

October 6, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3675 views

What it is: Pinball is a neat site from the BBC that helps students kick-start new ideas to get thoughts flowing and develop creative talents. There are four tools that will help students brainstorm and bounce ideas around. Dot Dash is for firing out ideas, start with a main idea and branch out with connected ideas in a web. Drop Zone is for making quick decisions, add ideas, name the zones, click “go”. As ideas speed by, quickly make a decision and select a zone; analyze the results. Snap Shot lets kids play with images; here they can upload an image or select a random image or word in “Lucky Dip” and then use the tools to play with the idea. Students can reflect, rotate, scale, bend, erase or cut an image or word to get different effects. Wild Reels is for mixing up ideas. Students can create reels of images and words, then they can label the reels. When the ideas are all in, the ideas can be “spun” to see what combination comes up. In each of the tools, the results can be “flipped” to another Pinball tool. Each tool allows students to think about a subject and explore ideas they may have about the subject.

How to integrate Pinball into your curriculum: Pinball is a fantastic tool to help kids think through their ideas for writing, research, science hypothesis, making connections in their learning, brainstorming, and fleshing out ideas. Each tool is designed to let students think visually in a way that lets their ideas flow freely. The integration of one tool with another is really helpful for transferring loosely related thoughts into a more cohesive thought process. Pinball can be used for whole class thinking with an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer. For example, as students read about a time period in history, and related events, they can use Dot Dash to show how the events and people are related. Students can each add to the class understanding of the time period. Drop Zone would be a great way for students to generate ideas for a creative writing, or journal project. Students can enter the ideas they have and let Drop Zone help them decide which to write about. Bookmark Pinball on classroom computers so that students can use them as an inspiration station center. Any time your students need to bounce ideas around or think through their learning visually they can visit Pinball and work through their ideas. Pinball would also be helpful for structuring thinking prior to a research report, or science experiment. If you have access to a computer lab or 1-to-1 setting, allow your students time to think about their learning and connect new learning to knowledge frameworks they have already built. The possibilities with these tools are endless.

Tips: Pinball offers links to additional thinking tools that are available on the web including Exploratree, Mind Tools, bubbl.us, Aviary, Mind 42, and Wisemapping. Each of these tools is fantastic for mind mapping, creative thinking, brainstorming, and visualizing ideas.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Pinball in your classroom!

Sumdog: Fun Math Practice Games

October 6, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments4577 views

What it is: Sumdog math is a site with an outstanding collection of math games covering over 100 numeracy topics and split into 10 levels. The games are free to play for home and school math practice. Sumdog games can be used as an engaging anticipatory set for mental math, or to reinforce a specific math topic. The games can be played individually or in multi-player mode. Teachers can create school accounts and upload classes to the program. For a low-cost school subscription you can also have detailed class and student reports, set up class competitions, and set a minimum level for a class. The free features of this site are more than enough to get your class having fun interacting with math. With 100 numeracy topics, you are bound to find games to help your students practice exactly the skill they are working on. Topics range from ordering numbers, addition, subtraction, doubling, rounding, multiplication, and division, to positive and negative numbers, advanced number sequences, prime numbers, and adding and subtracting negative numbers. Each game asks targeted questions based on the level chosen, provides immediate feedback to students based on their answers, allows students to review any questions they got wrong and lasts about a minute. Multi-player games let students compete against their class or students online worldwide, and provide an option for playing solo or against the computer. Students can play athletics where they sprint against players worldwide to get the most questions correct; Street Racer where they are head to head in a car race against other players to cross the finish line first, Alien Invaders where students compete against another player to see who can survive the longest against alien invasion; Penalty Shootout where students compete against another player in a soccer penalty shootout of math questions; Tennis Tie-break where students trade volleys with a real opponent; Talent Show where they answer questions correctly to please judges in a talent show (think American Idol); or Canal Clear Up where students clean up trash from a canal by matching questions to answers.

How to integrate Sumdog into your curriculum: Sumdog is a fun way for your students to practice mental math. The 60 second time limit of each game makes it a great math center activity. If you have one or two computers in your classroom, students can sign into their account, choose their level and practice mental math for 60 seconds; when they are finished with the game, the next student can rotate into the center. In a computer lab or 1-to-1 classroom setting, students can save and track their progress as they practice with a variety of games. Sumdog is a welcome break from timed worksheet exercises and flash cards. It lets students compete with kids around the world in a safe environment while helping them with faster number recall.

Tips: Don’t forget to tell parents about Sumdog, they are always looking for new ways to help their kids with math fact practice.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Sumdog in your classroom!

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Today’s Document: History through cartoons

October 1, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments2549 views

What it is: Today’s Document is an awesome daily history site that I learned about from the Instructify blog written by Bill Ferris. Today’s Document is based on the RSS feed from the National Archives. Jon White takes these daily documents from history and turns them into cartoons that illustrate the history. Cartoons and drawings offer such an incredible and striking visual to accompany history. They help flesh out what was happening and give students a way to connect to and characterize history.

How to integrate Today’s Document into your curriculum: This is, simply stated, an AWESOME site. I have mentioned before that history was not my strength in school. I struggled with finding the story in history. For me it was a lot of facts, dates, names, and places that I couldn’t seem to get a handle on. A site like Today’s Document would have done wonders for my understanding of history. The visuals clearly connect the facts with a larger story. Even better, White publishes the story behind each cartoon along side it. Today’s Document makes an incredible e-textbook complete with daily updates, links to videos, articles, primary sources, and additional opportunities to learn more about each topic. Today’s Document would make a fantastic discussion starter in any classroom. It’s natural fit would be in the history or civics class but could really be used in many disciplines including literature, writing, and even science. Because Today’s Document uses cartoons to tell history, the site can be used with a wide range of age groups. Even young students can look at the cartoons and follow the story each day. Each drawing is linked to the original primary source document on National Archives with an invitation to dig deeper. Within the preamble describing the cartoon, White often includes links to outside videos and articles that reinforce the daily document.

Tips: I encourage you to take a look at White’s previous cartoons, you can do so by using the “previous” button or searching the archives by date. He started this project in January 2010.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Today’s Document in your classroom!

Technology & Character Education: A Lesson in Empathy

September 30, 2010September 30, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments16439 views

Empathy is an important cornerstone in character education; developing empathy can help prevent negative social behaviors such as bullying, spitefulness, and alienation. It is a key social emotion and when developed brings an awareness of ones own emotions as well as those of others. Using Apple’s Photo Booth and Pages (or Seenly and Microsoft Word), students can make a “How are you feeling?” poster of emotions. These posters teach students to recognize what their own emotions look like and help them to recognize them in others. If you don’t have access to built in cameras or web cams, digital cameras can be used in their place. The completed posters can be used for various character education lessons throughout the year and make for a nice year-long bulletin board in the classroom. The posters are also useful when discussing literary characters and their feelings/emotions, as well as an aid in conflict resolution for younger students. The Feelings posters are a helpful tool for autistic children as they help them recognize facial expressions and emotions in themselves and others.

The lessons in empathy is perfect for kindergarten through sixth grade. Three templates are included in the lesson k-1 grade, 2-3 grade, and 4-6 grade. As a computer teacher, I completed this lesson with my students every year from kindergarten-fifth grade. By the fifth grade, students had a collection of 6 feelings posters that showcased each year of school. Parents saved these posters as a keepsake.

This collection includes a lesson plan, templates, an emotions card game, and suggestions for sharing the template with student computers. There are two options for download, one for use with Apple’s Pages and PhotoBooth (or digital camera) and one for use with Microsoft Word and Seenly (or digital camera). The Pages option is for use with Macintosh only. The Microsoft Word option is for use with Mac or PC. In this lesson students will practice using text boxes, drag and drop, mouse manipulation, inserting images, and resizing. Click here to find the Feelings Poster Lesson in Empathy in the iLearn Technology store.

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EduTecher’s Change the World

September 29, 2010September 29, 2010Kelly Tenkely12 Comments3764 views

What it is: EduTecher’s Change the World is a campaign started by @adambellow at EduTecher to transform the world one penny at a time. Between October 1 and November 25 every new user that enters EduTecher.net will allow @adambellow to donate 1 penny on their behalf to a charity that his audience votes on. The charity that gets the most votes will get a check. The idea is that we can change the world together, one person at a time. Want to make an even bigger impact? If you have a blog, website, or Facebook page you can post the Change the World badge or link and every time one of your readers or friends clicks on it another penny will be donated. I am taking @adambellow’s idea the step further and will offer the same. For each new user that comes to iLearn Technology between October 1 and November 25 (2010), I will donate a penny to a charity that we will vote on here. So, if you would like to double your difference, you can add the EduTecher’s Change the World logo and link along with the iLearn Technology Change the World logo and link. This is a great idea of a little way that we can start making a difference in a bigger way.

You can view the video explanation below:

How to integrate EduTecher’s Change the World into your curriculum: Why not create a similar school wide campaign to change the world one penny at a time? You can collect pennies as a class or if you have a class blog or student blogs, issue a similar Change the World Challenge. As an added bonus, map out where your “pennies” are coming from and have your students write an introductory letter to the charity and include a map of where the money came from! If you aren’t familiar with the EduTecher website, it is definitely worth checking out. EdTecher reviews web 2.0 tools for the classroom, they have a great collection of web 2.0 for students and teachers all in one place.

Tips: Add the EduTecher’s Change the World badge to your website, blog or Facebook page and then double the change by adding the iLearn Technology badge. Together we can (and will) change the world. If you are extending the change please let me know in the comments below, I would love to see how far reaching this is!

iLearn Technology badge:

Code to place badge on your site:

Please leave a comment and share how you are using EduTecher’s Change the World in your classroom!

Progressive Phonics

September 28, 2010Kelly Tenkely6 Comments4861 views

What it is: Progressive Phonics is a fantastic, free all-in-one reading program that I learned about from @rmbyrne on his blog Free Tech for Teachers (honestly, some days I wonder why I bother with a resource sharing blog…he is amazing!) This site is totally FREE, as in every single download is available for $0, all that is required is registration. Progressive Phonics provides books that can be read on-screen or printed out. Books include alphabet books, beginner phonics, intermediate phonics, advanced phonics, and handwriting. In addition to phonics rules, Progressive Phonics teaches essential sight-words (phonics rule-breakers). Each book includes a PDF version of the book, and accompanying activity sheets such as handwriting worksheets, a word search puzzle, flash cards, and a five-minute memory game. If you have access to iPads or iPod’s for your classroom, these FREE phonics books can be downloaded and put into the iBook bookshelf for reading.

How to integrate Progressive Phonics into your curriculum: Phonics is one of those things that a reading program either excels at, or falls flat with. Using the Treasures reading curriculum, I was always disappointed by the lack of real phonics work and often supplemented with sites like Starfall. Progressive Phonics is another resource that would make a fantastic supplement. If you use a standard reading curriculum, take a look at the Progressive Phonics books and align them with your current curriculum. For example if your current curriculum has students practicing short vowel “a”, find the corresponding phonics rule in Progressive Phonics. Because these books are free to download, they are excellent for printing out and sending home with students for extra reading practice. The accompanying printable games, flashcards, and puzzles will keep your students practicing that skill in and out of the classroom. Books can be printed out and assembled as a traditional book, read on the classroom or lab computers, or transferred onto a mobile device such as the iPad or iPod Touch. This collection of phonics resources is a must see!

Tips: One thing I really appreciate about this site is that each book comes with a page count and an approximate time to print. I remember spending hours printing Starfall books on an old school printer, wondering if I would ever finish. The approximate printing time lets you know what you are in for before you hit print. Each book is offered in two formats, one is a print friendly version that has been designed to use as little ink as possible. So smart!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Progressive Phonics in your classroom!

Join Me

September 28, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2736 views

What it is: Join Me is an incredibly simple way to share your computer screen with others. It works on both Windows and Mac allowing you to share your screen (and whatever is on it instantly). The simplicity of this site is brilliant. If you have even a sparkle of being a “techie” among family, colleagues, or friends, you most likely get regular phone calls asking for your help with something. The problem: those asking the question don’t usually know enough to accurately articulate what their hang up is. Join Me is a simple solution, it lets you share screens so that you can see what the problem is and walk them step by step through the solution. Join Me is also great for the classroom, it lets students and teachers quickly share their screens for instant collaboration, feedback, or virtual meetings.

How to integrate Join Me into your curriculum: In my computer lab, I often wanted to share my screen with a student so that I could share a process with them, or provide them with feedback. I usually used Apple’s Remote Desktop for this, the only problem was that students couldn’t initiate the shared screen. Another problem I ran into was Remote Desktop dropping connections or crashing. Join Me would have made an excellent backup! With the increased use of technology, Join Me would be a great tool to help students collaborate on homework projects, enabling them to easily share screens and work as if they were in the same room. Join Me provides a unique URL for the screen share, enables a conference call phone number, an on-screen chat, and the ability to choose a presenter and switch control of the mouse. Join Me would be an easy way to extend the learning day for your students, or allow a student who is absent to be included in a live lesson (this could be students who are sick, students with a long-term illness, students who are traveling, or students who know they will be attending your classroom after a move).

Tips: When you use Join me, a package is downloaded to your computer to allow it to run. If you want to use this tool with students, make sure that they have privileges to download and run packages.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Join Me in your classroom!

Graphic Novel Creator: Comic Master

September 27, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments5566 views

What it is: The Graphic Novel Creator: Comic Master is a portion of the Read Me program (learn about it here). This is a really cool online comic creator, the interface is fun to use and very intuitive. It is obviously geared toward students with a great look and even an embedded music player. I love the details on this site, including the headline “Reading isn’t only in books, it’s everywhere!”. Using the Graphic Novel Creator, students can create their own multi-page graphic novels with interesting backgrounds, characters, props, and customized text. The graphic novels can be saved and printed out.

How to integrate Graphic Novel Creator: Comic Master into your curriculum: Graphic novels are becoming increasingly popular reading material, particularly for boys. They have even the most reluctant readers excited to pull out a book. Now those kids who love reading graphic novels, can create their own. A graphic novel is a great way for students to show what they know. They can create a graphic novel re-tell of a story as a book report, describe a science experiment, re-tell a portion of history with a superhero twist, practice another language by telling a story, even define and demonstrate understanding of vocabulary words.

Tips: Be sure to check out the read me site for great teachers notes, ideas, and additional resources for teaching with the Graphic Novel Creator. A special thank you to @thebookchook for introducing me to this tool!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Graphic Novel Creator: Comic Master in your classroom!

Read Me

September 27, 2010Kelly Tenkely6 Comments3270 views

What it is: Do you want your students to become deep thinkers? Read Me is an incredible set of engaging resources that will have your students thinking deeply about who they are and how learning and thinking is vital to their life. The resources have been designed to reach 11 to 14-year-old boys, to excite them about reading in and out of the classroom. I can tell you that as a girl, I am enjoying these resources just as much, I think that would be true of girls in the 11 to 14 age range as well. Read Me (by the National Schools Partnership) has created six modules that connect with students at their interest level and teach them how to be reflective, deep thinkers and learners.

This is me- covers an understanding of autobiographical texts in traditional (diary) and modern (blog) contexts. This is me includes teachers notes and presentations that will help students to explore autobiographical texts and self-expression through blogging.

Sport & me- asks students to explore sports websites and media texts by analyzing their structure and presentation. Students take on the role of a persuasive sports person and ultimately create their own report or website.

Love 4 me- helps students explore different types of love by using texts from a variety of time periods and genres (including images, short extracts, music, lyrics) as well as in Romeo and Juliet. Students engage with a range of texts that are thematically linked by love. The culminating activity here is for students to create their own chat show and to create a collage based on love. (I’m not sure if 11-14 year old boys would be into this topic…but this one will hook the girls for sure!)

Film + me- students use film trailers and titles to develop an understanding of how meaning is created through a combination of words, images, and sounds. After students have analyzed film trailers and titles, they are asked to present a novel as a trailer.

Graphics 4 me- this one is my favorite because it comes with an awesome graphic novel tool (learn about it here) Here students explore how graphic novels work and become familiar with the medium and its complexity. Students can create their own graphic novel online using this tool.

Music in me- students explore songs, their lyrics, and the impact they have on their audience. As a result, students understand how society is presented through music and the media and stereotypes and attitudes it can help to perpetuate.

How to integrate Read Me into your curriculum: There is so much learning that will happen as a result of these six modules, but at the heart of Read Me is a goal to excite kids about reading. Read Me has incredible ideas and resources for the language arts/literature/literacy classroom. Use these resources to connect your students with story, passion, and understanding of how language is used. There is something for every kid to connect with here. Each module contains teachers notes, resources, links, and tips. This is a truly incredible resource and collection for this age group. Read Me encourages students to understand, analyze, evaluate, apply, and create.

Tips: This site includes a graphic novel creator. I am writing about it separately because it deserves its own post. You can find it here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Read Me in your classroom!